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For those who may be considering using an offshore call center to handle inbound sales calls, we'd like to suggest a little reading: One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. According to a recent post in the FreeNewMexican this little expose has sold 100,000 copies since October, no mean feat in the book biz.

What struck this writer was the author's straightforward description of the contempt with which call center management holds the North American customer base that they "serve." Anyone who has struggled to understand the directions being given during a late-night, high-anxiety service call (e.g. attempting to get a failure-prone home network to return to life) will get a real kick out of the 10=35 "golden rule."

Hopefully, this book will find readership outside India, where it has certainly had a great run. For those in the HR side of the telemarketing and customer service business, it presents a "distant mirror" that will hopefully lead to improvements in a part of the work world that is in great need of humane attention.

"Making it easy" for shoppers seems like a no-brainer. However, we continue to be amazed at the clunky navigation experience we have on a number of ecommerce sites. We long for the "Easy Button" featured by a noted office supply vendor. But how to make it easy . . . that's the question.

"During the last three months of the year, the conversion rate for visitors using the search box on a web site was 7.54 percent – 2.7 times higher than the conversion rate for average site users (2.79 percent), according to the WebSideStory Index . . . "

The report also included some interesting information regarding the value of loyalty. During the last quarter of 2005 (continuing into early 2006):

Wish We'd Said It First

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.